Happy Birthday...to me!

It's finally here, the day I've hit 30. In many ways, it's anticlimactic. Most of my good friends are older than I am, including my beautiful bride. Also, in the ministry, there's usually this reverence of things old - I've heard early 40's is like the perfect age to be a minister. So, in some ways, hitting 30 is a bit like hitting 20 - the respect factor increases, if only a bit. No longer am I just 20-something. Now, I'm thirty. I'm in that decade of stability, family life, career advancement, etc. It's in this decade that I have just enough life experience to offer suggestions, but yet still relate to "young people." So, all in all, I'm not all that put out by being... thirty.

Also, over the weekend, Saturday to be exact, Bridgette threw me a great birthday party, full of food and fun. We grilled out, tons of people came over, Bridgette made 2 delicious cakes, and she had people write a thought to/about me that she's compiling to put into a little "30 years" memory book with pictures. It's cool. Now, we're almost off to Colorado, to see a very good friend from college get married. Actually, I get to officiate the wedding, so it's going to be pretty cool. This will be the first wedding of a friend I've officiated, and the outdoor setting is reminiscent of our own reception, at Letchworth State Park 8 years ago. My guess is, if I was still only 29, they wouldn't have asked me to officiate. But now that I'm 30, I'm responsible...